Tokugawa’s Gamble: Betrayals, Battles, and the Tiger of Kai - Sengoku Jidai

0:05Oden was paralyzed with fear as he saw what appeared to be his own lord charging with

0:10his horse into a wall of spears. “I am Tokugawa Ieyasu!” he heard the rider proclaim before he

0:16vanished under a sea of red. Then he saw another rider, hastily making his way towards the castle.

0:22It took him a second to realise who he was. It was his master, Lord Ieyasu. There was no mistaking

0:28him, he could tell him by his elaborate helmet. He was in danger, for crimson clad warriors were fast

0:33approaching him. Oden spurred his horse to catch up. “Protect Lord Tokugawa!” he screamed at the

0:39rest of the guards who tried to keep the enemies away from their master. Thrusting his spear,

0:43he managed to fell one of them from his mount. He rode next to his lord for another 50 meters,

0:48holding back anyone who dared approach, until an arrow found him at his back. His hands relaxed,

0:54letting his spear fall to the ground before he himself followed but not before managing to catch

0:59a glimpse of his lord, safely galloping away. Content he had fulfilled his duty,

1:04Oden closed his eyes. Welcome back to another episode of our series on Sengoku Jidai and

1:10the second on Tokugawa Ieyasu. In this video we will see his conquest of Totomi province,

1:15his clash with the legendary Takeda Shingen and the catastrophic battle of Mikatagahara.

1:21Tokugawa name and Conquest of Totomi

2:10In the previous episode, we followed Ieyasu’s early life until his consolidation of control

2:15over Mikawa province and his alliance with Oda Nobunaga. While Nobunaga was

2:20definitely the rising star of Japan at this time and capable of exerting more influence,

2:25Ieyasu was not lacking in ambition. Having secured Mikawa for the Matsudaira clan, his gaze turned

2:31to the lands of Totomi and Suruga, which were still ruled by his former overlords, the Imagawa.

2:39Before moving on with the invasion of Totomi and Suruga, let us first

2:42talk a bit about yet another name change for Ieyasu, and thankfully the last one. In 1567,

2:48Ieyasu was able to obtain a permit from the Emperor to change his last name to Tokugawa,

2:53claiming descent from the Seiwa Genji via a branch of the Nitta clan. Initially,

2:58the Imperial court had refused to grant him this right as there had been no evidence of

3:02such pedigree in the Matsudaira clan. However, Ieyasu was able to find, or rather construct,

3:08a genealogical document proving his lineage. Thus, he was permitted to adopt the last name of

3:13Tokugawa. He was also appointed as Mikawa no Kami, Lord of Mikawa, and received the Junior Fifth Rank

3:19in court. This might seem of little significance at first, but for a man as ambitious as Tokugawa,

3:25having the right pedigree was paramount, for only those descended from the Seiwa

3:29Genji and related to the Minamoto clan could claim the title of Shogun. Perhaps Ieyasu was

3:35planning too far ahead, but history proved him right in the end, so who are we to judge him?

3:42As we established in our previous video, Imagawa Yoshimoto was not a great military leader,

3:47and since the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, his son Ujizane was equally incapable,

3:52if not worse. Despite that, the Imagawa still wielded considerable strength and were allied

3:58to some of the most powerful clans of Japan, the Hojo of Sagami province and the Takeda of Kai. The

4:04latter was by far the biggest threat. The Takeda cavalry had no equal in the land of the rising

4:09sun. Their daimyo, known as Takeda Harunobu or alternatively by his Buddhist name of Shingen,

4:15was considered one if not the greatest military strategist at the time, his only equal being

4:21his great rival Uesugi Kenshin. It is therefore understandable that Ieyasu could not blindly move

4:26against the Imagawa, not unless something would disturb the balance of power. Luckily for him,

4:32Shingen was more than eager to accelerate the fall of the declining Imagawa and claim their lands for

4:38his own. Such a move against a decades-old ally was not easily accepted by everyone.

4:43For one thing, his eldest, albeit illegitimate son, Yoshinobu, was married to Ujizane’s sister

4:49and naturally objected to his father going to war with his father-in-law. For the sake of his wife,

4:54Yoshinobu rebelled against his father, only for Harunobu to defeat him, capture

4:59him and execute him. Along with Yoshinobu, one of Shingen’s most trusted advisors,

5:04known as Twenty-Four Generals Obu Toramasa, was also forced to commit seppuku for the same reason.

5:09With their deaths, the Takeda camp was now unified behind their daimyo’s will.

5:16Shingen had already established an alliance with the Oda by marrying his daughter, Matsu-hime,

5:21to Nobunaga’s son and heir, Nobutada. Though the marriage was never consummated,

5:26it secured the alliance between the two clans at least for the time being. Shingen

5:30then extended this pact to Ieyasu, suggesting they attack Ujizane together and split up the

5:35Imagawa lands between themselves. The Totomi province would go to the Tokugawa and Suruga

5:40to the Takeda. Ieyasu accepted, probably thinking that in the future he would have to face Shingen

5:46either way so he might as well benefit from them for now. The war with the Imagawa was

5:50easier than one would have expected. Facing the much stronger Takeda forces, Ujizane’s troops

5:56only temporarily managed to put a stop to the invaders at Satta mountain pass, while others

6:01who had secretly switched sides preferred flight to fight. Seeing how hopeless his position was,

6:07Ujizane also decided to flee Suruga and sought refuge in Kakegawa castle in Totomi. The news

6:13of their lord’s retreat to Totomi disheartened the remaining Imagawa soldiers and the entire

6:17line collapsed, leaving the road to Sumpu open. Led by Baba Nobuharu, the Takeda forces marched

6:24to the capital of the Imagawa and put it to the torch, despite Shingen’s desire to take

6:28Ujizane’s villa untouched on account of the many treasures the Imagawa had collected over the ages.

6:34However, while the Imagawa had offered little resistance, Shingen’s actions aggravated the

6:38third party of the alliance and Hojo Ujiyasu, who dispatched his son, Ujimasa, to march on Suruga

6:44during the first days of 1569 at the head of forty five thousand men. In response, the Takeda

6:50fortified the Satta pass just as the Imagawa had done before, blocking the Hojo advance. Shingen’s

6:56men were already facing a shortage of military provisions, and their situation worsened when

7:01they launched a failed attack against Imagawa’s Omiya castle that controlled the Nakamichi and

7:05Suruga roads. By March, their lack of supplies forced Shingen to pull back the majority of his

7:11troops to Kai through the much harder Taru pass, with Ujimasa also retreating back to Sagami.

7:19While this was happening at Suruga, Ieyasu had invaded Totomi from Mikawa by way of Jinza pass.

7:25He quickly captured Futamata and Hikima castles and laid siege to Kakegawa Castle,

7:29where Ujizane had barricaded himself. Kakegawa’s defenders had also been reinforced by Hojo troops

7:35that had arrived by sea, while some other Imagawa owned castles lay at its periphery; namely Horie,

7:41Utsuyama and Horikawa. Ieyasu settled down for a long siege and built up his own defenses around

7:47Kakegawa, but the Imagawa forces did not sit idle, launching numerous attacks and at times forcing

7:53the Tokugawa forces to retreat. Nevertheless, the castle was eventually surrounded.

8:00While Shingen’s position gradually worsened as his army was bogged down by Ujimasa’s army and loyal

8:05Imagawa forces had recaptured Sunpu, Ieyasu was enjoying some success, capturing the castles of

8:11Utsuyama, Horikawa and Horie in March. Following this, Ieyasu entered negotiations with Ujizane,

8:18promising to help him regain Suruga if he gave Totomi to him. Ujizane accepted,

8:23and Kakegawa Castle was delivered to the Tokugawa on the 6th of May. Not long after,

8:28Ieyasu ended his alliance with Shingen and entered one with Uesugi Kenshin. Ujizane fled to

8:34Hojo-controlled Izu and to flip the finger off to both Shingen and Ieyasu. There, he wrote a letter

8:39proclaiming that he was transferring lordship of both Suruga and Totomi to Hojo Ujimasa’s

8:44eldest son, Ujinao, who at that time was still a small child. Of course this mattered little,

8:50as Ieyasu was firmly in control of Totomi and Shingen was not going to give up on conquering

8:55Suruga. In June, Ujimasa and Uesugi Kenshin formalised an alliance against the Takeda,

9:00an event that did nothing to stop Shingen from coming down from Kai that very same month.

9:05He first invaded Hojo lands, devastating part of Mishima and Izu before turning

9:10westwards to invade Suruga a second time and tie up loose ends. His third attack on Omiya

9:16castle the following month proved fruitful, and Fuji county fell under Takeda control.

9:23From there, the Tiger of Kai had his troops retreat to Kofu, and after securing a peace

9:28treaty with the Uesugi, he attacked the Hojo lands in Musashi by way of Shinano province.

9:33This wasn’t an honest invasion to wrestle control of Kanto from the Hojo, but a diversion to draw

9:38Ujimasa’s forces away from Suruga and into Kanto, and it worked like a charm. Having achieved this,

9:44Shingen retreated back to Kofu in October and prepared to invade Suruga a third time.

9:50This time, Shingen would be successful. He captured Kambara castle in early December,

9:55and this caused the remaining Hojo troops in the area to retreat. With the road open, the Takeda

10:00forces captured Sumpu and from then on advanced at a slower pace until in December of 1571,

10:06two months after the death of Hojo Ujiyasu, the two clans made peace and signed a new alliance

10:12between them, bringing the third invasion of Suruga to an end and the province becoming

10:16part of Shingen’s domain with the exception of a few small parts that remained under Hojo control.

10:24Asakura-Azai and Mikatagahara While Takeda Shingen was fighting

10:25the Hojo left and right to secure his hold on Suruga, Tokugawa Ieyasu was solidifying

10:30his control of Totomi. In early 1570, he transferred his capital from Okazaki to Hikuma,

10:36which he renamed Hamamatsu and expanded upon its castle town and defenses. He passed

10:41the ancestral seat of the Matsudaira to his eldest son, Nobuyasu. Only a few months later,

10:47Ieyasu would find himself embroiled in a new conflict as his trusted ally, Oda Nobunaga,

10:52had a fallout with Shogun Ashikaga Yoshiaki and was at war with the Asakura clan of Echizen.

10:58Details of this conflict can be found in our Nobunaga video, so for now, it will suffice to

11:03say that Ieyasu and his men followed the Oda force in Echizen, capturing two forts at Tezutsuyama

11:09and Kamigasaki. However, the Azai clan of Omi sided with the Asakura and were now marching,

11:14threatening to encircle the Oda-Tokugawa army. Upon hearing of this, Nobunaga called for a war

11:20council in which an immediate retreat was decided, with Ieaysu and Tototomi Hideyoshi appointed to

11:26lead the rear guard and hold off the Asakura forces that were pursuing them. Thanks to the

11:30actions of these two men, the combined allied forces were able to retreat to safety. Ieyasu

11:36briefly went back to Hamamatsu, where he mustered a larger force of around five thousand men.

11:44In July, he once more joined Nobunaga in the field, this time at Anegawa. There,

11:49on the northern bank of the river, the Azai and Asakura had deployed their combined armies,

11:53numbering no more than twenty thousand men. Initially, Ieyasu was supposed to form his

11:58army opposite the Azai, who were fewer in number than the Asakura. However, since Nobunaga harbored

12:04personal hate towards Azai Nagamasa, they switched positions, and Ieyasu deployed his hardened Mikawa

12:10bushi on the west side opposite the Asakura troops. Sakai Tadatsugu and Ishikawa Kazumasa

12:16led Ieyasu’s vanguard while Honda Tadakatsu and Sakakibara Yasumasa the rearguard. Again,

12:22the details about this battle can be found in our Nobunaga videos, so for now,

12:26we will only say that the battle was largely won thanks to Ieyasu’s experienced soldiers,

12:31who broke the Asakura forces and attacked the Azai on the right flank. After this,

12:36Inaba Ittetsu attacked the Azai on their left flank, forcing them to flee the battlefield.

12:43With the Azai and Asakura on the back foot, Nobunaga was able to handle the situation by

12:48himself, so Ieyasu returned to Hamamatsu. As we have already mentioned, Shingen concluded

12:53his conquest of Suruga in the Autumn. After allying himself with the Hojo to secure his rear,

12:58he decided to march all the way to Kyoto, heeding the call of Shogun Yoshiaki, who was more or less

13:04begging for someone to save him from Nobunaga. In October of 1572, after waiting for the winter

13:10snows to block the northern passes that would prevent his rival Kenshin from coming down,

13:15Shingen led a thirty-thousand-strong force into Totomi. His troops were further bolstered by an

13:21additional two thousand strong regiment that was lent to him by Hojo Ujimasa. At the same time,

13:26another division, numbering some five thousand warriors led by Yamagata Masakage, marched towards

13:31Mikawa. Ieyasu sent a small reconnaissance force of around three thousand men under Okubo Tadayo

13:38and Honda Tadakatsu, but they were unable to achieve anything. Meanwhile, Masakage was able to

13:43link up with the main force after taking Yoshida castle, which captured Kakegawa and Futamata.

13:51Shingen was now fast approaching Ieyasu and his eight thousand men at his stronghold in Hamamatsu.

13:57However, the first foreign banners Ieyasu’s men watched from their towers approaching did not

14:01belong to the daimyo of Kai but to Nobunaga, who had heeded his ally’s plea for help and

14:07dispatched three thousand men under Sakuma Nobumori, Hirate Hirohide and Takigawa Kazumasu.

14:12This number might seem small, but we must also remember that Nobunaga was already invested in

14:18his own conflicts, and his forces were already spread thin. With the arrival of the Oda forces,

14:23Ieyasu held a war council where Nobunaga’s generals advised him to assume a defensive

14:28stance. However, in a rare case of carelessness, Ieyasu decided to take the field and led his

14:33forces out to a plain called Mikatagahara, not even a mile north of Hamamatsu. There, he

14:39deployed his army in a “stork’s wing” formation, using the Magome river to cover his right flank.

14:44Behind the long front line followed the main body commanded by Ieyasu himself. On his right,

14:50he placed Nobunaga’s men, and on the extreme right flank, there was another group of Mikawa

14:54samurai led by Sakai Tadatsugu. On the left flank, he placed men under Ogasawara Nagayoshi,

15:00Matsudaira Ietada, Honda Tadakatsu and Ishikawa Kazumasa. Shingen had deployed

15:05his own forces in a fish scale formation with Oyamada Nobushige leading the vanguard, Naito

15:09Masatoyo and Yamagata Masakage on the second line, his son Katsuyori and Obata Masamori on the third

15:15and Baba Nobuharu in the rear. Further behind was Shingen himself, commanding fifteen thousand men.

15:23It was during a light snowfall around four in the afternoon when the Takeda unleashed

15:28their first frontal assault towards Ieyasu’s position. Ieyasu had a number of arquebus

15:33equipped ashigaru and was hoping that the Takeda assault would break by their volleys. However,

15:38they proved ineffective and Shingen’s men crashed into Ieyasu’s two flanks. The left flank,

15:44which was made up of Mikawa troops and led by more experienced generals like Tadakatsu, was able to

15:49resist and even push back the assault. That was not the case for the Oda men who were overwhelmed.

15:55Sakuma and Takigawa turned tail and retreated while Hirohide perished in the fight and his

16:00men fled. Thus Sakai Tadatsugu was left isolated in the extreme right and was pushed back towards

16:06the main body. Taking advantage of his vast numerical advantage, Shingen rotated his forces

16:12and threw fresh regiments into combat. Facing the renewed Takeda assault, even the hardened

16:17Mikawa troops began faltering and retreating en masse. In an attempt to rally them back,

16:22Ieyasu ordered Okubo Tadayo to plant his standard, a giant golden fan, on a hill near Saigadake, to

16:29serve as a rally point. He himself went to assist Mizuno Tadashige, who had been trapped fighting

16:34two of Shingen’s divisions. It was a completely suicidal decision and Ieaysu would have perished

16:40there had not one of his retainers by the name of Natsume Yoshinobu not intervened. It is said that

16:45Yoshinobu struck Ieyasu’s horse with the back of his sword, sending it running towards the rear,

16:50while he screamed “I am Tokugawa Ieyasu” and charged towards the Takeda soldiers who had

16:55almost surrounded Tokugawa’s bodyguard and met his end. As for Ieyasu he barely escaped and

17:01made his way to Hamamatsu where he ordered for the gates ro remain open and for big fires to be lit,

17:07employing the empty fort stratagem. It was a risky move, but it worked. As Yamagata Masakage and Baba

17:13Nobuharu approached the castle, they were puzzled by the situation and dared not to attack. That

17:20night, just to reinforce their assumption that the Tokugawa had not been entirely defeated,

17:24Ieyasu sent Okubo Tadayo and Amano Yasukage with a small band of men to raid the Takeda

17:29camp near the Saiga cliff. However, this story is considered anecdotal, as is another tale regarding

17:35Hattori Hanzo's rear guard action that held off the Takeda troops with a group of shinobi.

17:40Unfortunately, these tales lack much historical validity as no contemporary sources mention them.

17:47Outro In any case, Takeda Shingen

17:50had been successfully convinced that Tokugawa Ieyasu had still some fighting force to oppose

17:55him. He was also worried about Oda Nobunaga coming to his ally’s assistance and Uesugi Kenshin taking

18:01advantage of his absence from Kai. He and his generals therefore decided that the best course

18:06of action was to retreat to Kai and come back next year. Fortunately for Ieyasu, Shingen would

18:12not live that long. While besieging Noda castle in Mikawa not even a month later, the legendary Tiger

18:18of Kai fell ill, while another popular tale tells that the Takeda daimyo fell victim to one of the

18:24snipers posted on the castle’s rampants, who shot Shingen at the head when the latter approached the

18:29castle walls to better hear a flute player. In any case, by April of 1573, Shingen had passed away

18:36and Ieyasu had dodged a great threat. However, the war with the Takeda clan was far from over.

18:43In the next episode we will see the culmination of this conflict as well as the tragedy of Matsudaira

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